{"id":59445,"date":"2020-05-11T13:40:18","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=59445"},"modified":"2020-05-16T13:48:51","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T16:48:51","slug":"coronavirus-in-the-life-of-favelas-part-9-poetry-and-public-sinks-to-fight-the-pandemic-in-providencia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=59445","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus in the Life of Favelas, Part 9: Poetry and Public Sinks to Fight the Pandemic in Provid\u00eancia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>This article from Morro da Provid\u00eancia is the ninth in a <\/i><\/b>series about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on daily life in the favelas<\/i><\/b><\/a>. The series is made possible through a partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Morro da Provid\u00eancia<\/a>, which is over 120 years old<\/a>, is considered to be Brazil’s first favela<\/a>. Located in the downtown Centro<\/a> area of Rio de Janeiro, the area began to be occupied by former slaves in 1888<\/a>, and by ex-combatants from the Canudos War<\/a> in 1897. Soldiers who were sent to Canudos upon returning to Rio de Janeiro did not receive the land they were promised as payment and so settled instead on the nearby hill.<\/span><\/p>\n

Morro da Provid\u00eancia resembled another hill<\/a> that became the trench of the sertanejo <\/em>combatants in Canudos, who rose up against the Republic: the Morro da Favella. The \u201cfaveleira\u201d plant was dominant on that hill. Whether due to the memory of the original hill or by a possible presence of the ‘favela’ plant on the Rio de Janeiro hill, the fact is that the informally occupied region in Rio became known as “Morro da Favela.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the decades, the word “favela<\/a>” became the name used to identify informal settlements<\/a> across Brazil, and Morro da Favela came to be called Morro da Provid\u00eancia. According to the municipal government’s Pereira Passos Institute (IPP)<\/a> of urbanism, Provid\u00eancia has a population of about 5,000 people. Its residents contend there are at least twice as many.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this story, in the form of poetry, the coordinators of the<\/span> Horta Inteligente<\/span><\/a> (Intelligent Garden) project in Provid\u00eancia\u2014Elis\u00e2ngela Almeida Oliveira<\/a> and Lorena Portela<\/a>\u2014describe how the first favela is taking on the Covid-19 pandemic:<\/span><\/p>\n

In the city of Rio de Janeiro, its first favela is still fighting!
\n<\/span>Here in Morro da Provid\u00eancia, alcohol gel is gold.
\nWe should wash our hands and clothes after we have been in the street. But wash them with what water<\/a>?
\nWe should eat well to keep immunity high. But eat what food?
\nLack of water and poor basic sanitation<\/a> has been our reality since long before the pandemic days.
\nGet out of the street, kid! But how do you quarantine<\/a> with a big family and a small house?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are no hugs or handshakes.
\n<\/span>But, more than ever, collectives and leaders have been working together<\/a>:
\ncars with loudspeakers blaring for health<\/a>, on social media yelling for donations<\/a>!
\nHold on: these big numbers represent union:
\nBy the end of April, there were 620 basic food baskets, 103 organic food baskets, 950 meal cards, 2868 liters of bottled water.
\nFor cleaning, 1,460 hand soaps, 1,008 toilet paper packages, 1,100 bars of soap, 400 bottles of alcohol gel\u2026.
\nIn addition (and what a beautiful thing!): 37 sinks have been installed<\/a> along the hill and 1200 liters of soap produced from recycled cooking oil from here in the region! And there’s a lot more coming…
\nBy bank transfer<\/a> or crowdfunding, even large companies have donated!
\nAnd to distribute it all? Residents register by WhatsApp, and whoever is most vulnerable has priority!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cultivating gardens and orchards<\/a> also continues, in the squares, along the street.
\n<\/span>Will the favela ever achieve food sovereignty?
\nWe can only find out if we plant!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The street is already emptier… But most of us still have to go out every day to work.
\n<\/span>In the most unequal country in the world, staying home is more of a privilege than a precaution<\/a>: a protection that basic workers cannot access.
\nThat’s why we push for our request: basic income now<\/a>! We cannot wait anymore for the bureaucracy of the State<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gloves and masks are disposable.
\n<\/span>The lives of millions of children and residents of favelas and peripheries are not<\/a>!
\n<\/span>From here we are putting out some surreal fires,
\nbut we know that it is public policy that addresses structural problems<\/a>.
\nIt is for our own people that we carry on: working bit by bit,
\nbecause it\u2019s not just a ‘little flu.’
\nEvery day action is taken.
\n<\/span>In these 120 years of Morro da Favela
\n<\/span>Resistance and hope, even in times of war!<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The authors of this poetic report, Almeida and Portela, also developed a campaign with watercolors to transmit\u2014through direct messages that might attract positive attention\u2014information useful to mitigating Covid-19 transmission. The watercolor illustrations,* made by Portela (Instagram<\/a>), were drawn from Almeida’s observations on situations and behaviors in her experience in Provid\u00eancia:<\/span><\/p>\n